Nutritional status, health risk behaviors, and eating habits are correlated with physical activity and exercise of brazilian older hypertensive adults: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Nutritional status, health risk behaviors, eating habits, and other comorbidities (such as diabetes) may be associated with recommended amounts of physical activity (PA) and exercise (EX) in healthy older adults. However, these associations are still unclear for older hypertensive adults, who require greater care from health professionals. The purpose of this study was to associate the nutritional status, health risk behaviors, eating habits, and the presence of diabetes with recommended amounts of physical activity and exercise practice of older hypertensive adults. METHODS: Ten thousand seven hundred eighty-nine older hypertensive adults (70.9 ± 7.4 years) from the VIGITEL telephone survey were classified according to PA levels (insufficiently active/sufficiently active) and EX practice (non-practitioners/practitioners). Binary logistic regression was used to observe the odds ratio (OR) between independent variables (nutritional status [body mass index], sociodemographic characteristics [age/sex/years of study], risk behaviors [screen time/alcohol/tobacco consumption], eating habits [minimally/ultra-processed foods consumption score], and the presence of diabetes) with recommended amounts of PA/EX (dependent variable). RESULTS: Highest nutritional status (OR(PA) = 0.975 [95%-CI: 0.965 – 0.985]; OR(EX) = 0.981[95%-CI: 0.972 – 0.991]), age (OR(PA) = 0.955 [95%-CI: 0.949 – 0.961]; OR(EX) = 0.980[95%-CI: 0.975 – 0.986]), screen time (OR(PA) = 0.909[95%-CI: 0.835 – 0.990]), alcohol consumption (OR(PA) = 0.683[95%-CI: 0.621 – 0.758]; OR(EX) = 0.702[95%-CI: 0.637 – 0.779]), tobacco (OR(PA) = 0.601 [95%-CI: 0.492 – 0.736]; OR(EX) = 0.464[95%-CI: 0.384 – 0.562]) ultra-processed foods consumption score (OR(PA) = 0.896[95%-CI: 0.871 – 0.921]; OR(EX) = 0.886[95%-CI: 0.863 – 0.909]) and having diabetes (OR(PA) = 0.780[95%-CI: 0.708 – 0.859]; OR(EX) = 0.831[95%-CI: 0.759 – 0.909]) reduced the odds of being sufficiently active/practicing exercise (p < 0.05). Male sex (OR(PA) = 1.633[95%-CI: 1.491 – 1.789]; OR(EX) = 1.247[95%-CI: 1.140 – 1.363]), years of study (OR(PA) = 1.026[95%-CI: 1.018 – 1.035]; OR(EX) = 1.050[95%-CI: 1.041 – 1.058]), and minimally processed foods consumption score increased the odds of being sufficiently active/practicing exercise (OR(PA) = 1.132[95%-CI: 1.109 – 1.155]; OR(EX) = 1.167[95%-CI: 1.145 – 1.191], respectively; p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Nutritional status, health risk behaviors, eating habits, and the presence of diabetes were associated with the odds of older hypertensive adults complying with PA and EX recommendations. The results may help health professionals understand how these factors are associated with the changes of older hypertensive adults participating in physical activity and exercise. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-14873-4.